where do you want to be to carry speed through a jibe on a 125 hyper as compared with a flat bottom board? there is a lot of chop where i sail and the hyper cuts through well but the isonics may jibe better?

also, is there a reason that manufacturers don&#39;t publish information about which boards are actually ridden in various events? is it because they are actually all prototypes? obviously formula is an exception but the 42 slalom info would be interesting to know, not just what was registered but what was actually ridden.

Roger

2nd September 2006, 09:46 AM

Hi C-DD,
Same place. but that depends on the rockerline of the board.
On the Hypersonics, the best jibe technique is to step across the board with the new front foot (old back foot that&#39;s been removed from the rear footstrap) and place that foot so the board continues to plane with the nose at the same level (pitch angle) that you planed into the jibe.
The "roll" the board into the jibe so the planing surfaces stay at the same pitch trim, only the roll trim changes.
This is pretty much the same technique used on nearly all wide boards with a modern "flat at the back" rockerline.
If you have an older slalom or wave board, or even a more modern semi wide slalom board with a longer flatter rockerline, then stepping forward to engage more rail is the better technique.
The key to jibing the Hyper is to keep the pitch trim at the right angle, roll the board into the jibe without changing the pitch trim, and try to keep the pitch trim consistent all the way around.
Otherwise the board "trips" over the fairly pronounced change in rocker ahead of the planing surfaces.
I&#39;m not sure the iSonics jibe "better" but they are certainly easier to jibe.
I think this goes back to your earlier post about the Asian WS Champs, right?
In slalom 42, the racers can use any 2 boards they register for the event. The boards do not have to be ISAF approved, and some sailors sail custom boards.
Some pro sailors are probably on prototypes, some are on production boards that the individual has " tweaked" a bit, but most are on plain old production boards (perhaps production boards that they "sorted through" at the factory to get features they want.)
I&#39;m not sure that the sailors really share all that much info with the manufacturer about which boards they sailed, but if they do, I would suspect that information might be considered "proprietary" esecially if the sailor is on a prototype of next years production.
Overall, I think it might have to do with the Pro sailors not being quite as responsive (to internet questions) as you might like them to be.
They are very busy guys and gals as they have to rig all their own stuff, schlep all their many kilos of gear from event to event
Windsurfing (even at the highest levels) is not like motor racing where the driver just shows up and drives, with everything that leads to that being taken care b the owners and pit crew.
Pro sailors have to do everything for themselves in windsurfing.
And, they just may not want to share with anyone what they were sailing if it&#39;s faster than the others.
Hope this helps,